‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ Will Have A ‘Looser’ Feel Than The Previous Films

Since his break-out role in Inside Llewyn Davis, Oscar Isaac hasn’t stopped working. He’s starred in two major franchises (Star Wars, X-Men); received critical acclaim for his performances in A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, and HBO’s Show Me a Hero; and he was literally the only good thing about Suburbicon, despite the movie also starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore. In 2018 alone, he’s appeared in three films — Annihilation, Operation Finale, and Life Itself — with a fourth, the van Gogh biopic At Eternity’s Gate, coming out soon. That’s on top of filming Star Wars: Episode IX and providing the voice of Gomez in The Addams Family. No wonder he’s ready to take a break.

“I haven’t really stopped for 10 years,” Isaac told IndieWire about his plans once Episode IX wraps. “I’m just going to be with family and taking a bit of a rest.”

Speaking of Star Wars, Isaac is legally forbidden for revealing anything of note about the trilogy-capper, but he did reveal that “the way they’ve been shooting it right now is looser than it’s been for the last two times. It does feel like a relief to get on set and feel like, ‘Oh, we can try things.’ It’s a testament to [director J.J. Abrams] coming back and feeling confident. There’s less pressure for it to be right. We just want to make a good movie and have a really good time while doing it.” Isaac’s comments will inevitably be taken out of context by a Last Jedi hater — “STAR WARS ACTOR PREFERS WORKING WITH ABRAMS OVER JOHNSON” — but he’s prepared for/doesn’t care about the backlash.

“Luckily, since I’m not directing it, producing it, or distributing it, I don’t have to worry so much about fan expectations,” he said. “Also, not all fans have the same expectations.” He compared the response to Star Wars: The Force Awakens to the negativity that met George Lucas’ prequels. “People had very strong feelings, but there wasn’t as much of an organized way to speak out about it,” he said. “People that run blogs and websites need content. So it’s like, ‘There’s some content!’ Five people on Twitter. Hundreds. Whatever it is. Then you make it into a story.” (Via)